It is important that people be educate to make personal health choices for themselves and their families, and to apply a working understanding of scientific and economic principles in making these choices. It is important as well that educated people be able to discriminate relevant health issues and form enlightened public policy opinions regarding health promotion and health care. However, there are a variety of cultural and society barriers that impedes traditional outreach and education efforts. Many ethnic groups are isolated by culture, language and norms often making them at odds with Western health standards. The overall goal of the Community outreach and Education Core (COEC) is to insure TTURC has access to the various ethnic populations, and to disseminate the latest information in tobacco research to the service providers in the target areas. Specifically, the COEC will identify key structural linkages and existing service patterns and resources to: . facilitate access to the ethnic populations targeted by the TTURC, particularly Asian/Pacific Islanders, Hispanic/Latino and youth; . disseminate new tobacco control research information to policy makers, public, private and community-based organizations and assist these agencies in infusing this information into their service provision; . inform the TTURC of the communities' need and opinions concerning tobacco use and control to assist in determining future TTURC project; . identify potential students who could be trained by the TTURC to work in the community in tobacco control. The COEC objectives have been formulated to facilitate access to the target populations and disseminated the results of the TTURC research efforts. It is important to note that this plan builds upon previous and ongoing collaboration with the various targeting communities extending from Los Angeles County, the State of California and the Pacific Rim region. These strategies have proven to be successful in other program project grants by COEC staff.